


Fall Through Space Out of Mind

by beetattoo



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Angst, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Dream Smp, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Gen, No shipping, Sleepy Bois Inc as Family, Starts pre-canon, Techno POV, mostly canon compliant anyway, tfw youre an orphan teen who suddenly gets two sort-of brothers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-13 08:26:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29025696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beetattoo/pseuds/beetattoo
Summary: As they approach the front door, Phil starts rummaging in his messenger bag for the key, and Techno tries his best to get a glimpse of the house’s interior through the windows. There’s a wood-burning stove, a long crafting bench strewn with tools, and -- a little human boy, no older than six, appears behind the window, pressing his nose to the glass and staring with wide eyes. Phil chuckles as he unlocks the door. “Don’t worry. They’re excited to meet you.” The door swings open, light pouring out onto the stoop. “Welcome home, kid.”
Relationships: Wilbur Soot & Technoblade & TommyInnit & Phil Watson
Comments: 5
Kudos: 66





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> "how are SBI both canonically brothers and canonically not brothers at the same time" Well,

The path up to Phil’s house is steep and rocky. Usually, Techno’s hooves give him an advantage over humans in environments like these -- back in the Nether, scurrying up cliffs to save his skin, keeping his balance on crumbling outcroppings while hiding from a hunter’s crossbow -- but in the dark, in the rain, Techno finds himself stumbling on the slick ground. Ahead of him, Phil picks his way up carefully, looking back every few moments to make sure Techno hasn’t fallen behind. His wings are folded in close to his back, and guilt stabs at Techno’s chest thinking about how usually Phil can just fly up here instead of spending an hour scaling a cliffside in the rain with a nervous teenager.

Soft light glows from between a copse of trees up ahead. It’s hard to make out through the weather, but if Techno squints, he can see the shape of Phil’s cottage. A sloping roof. A short chimney. Shapes moving at the warm windows. Techno’s heart thumps. He swallows and almost stumbles.

“Almost there,” Phil calls over his shoulder.

Techno nods and pulls the leather straps of his knapsack tighter to his body.

The path starts to flatten out as they get closer to the house. As they approach the front door, Phil starts rummaging in his messenger bag for the key, and Techno tries his best to get a glimpse of the house’s interior through the windows. There’s a wood-burning stove, a long crafting bench strewn with tools, and -- a little human boy, no older than six, appears behind the window, pressing his nose to the glass and staring with wide eyes. Phil chuckles as he unlocks the door. “Don’t worry. They’re excited to meet you.” The door swings open, light pouring out onto the stoop. “Welcome home, kid.”

Techno takes a deep breath and follows him inside. He has to duck his head under the low door frame. He awkwardly wipes his hooves on the doormat, unsure whether or not to take off his knapsack.

The air inside is warm and smells of pinewood. Phil shuts and latches the door behind them, and gets busy taking off his shoes and hat, shrugging off his long coat, and dropping his bag on the kitchen table to start unloading items. “Make yourself at home,” he says, smiling and gesturing at the couch in front of the stove where the kid from the window and another human boy closer to Techno’s age sit in inquisitive silence. “I’m putting soup on. You boys get to know each other.”

The older boy stands. He’s even taller than Techno, gangly, and wearing a patterned sweater that looks hand-knit. He extends his hand. “I’m Will,” he says, smiling, and inclines his head towards the little one. “This is Tommy. It’s nice to meet you.”

Techno steps forward and gives Will a stiff handshake. “Thanks,” he says.

The little one -- Tommy -- jumps up on the couch and stares Techno down. “Why are you a pig?”

“Shush, Tommy,” Will says, frowning at his brother. “That’s not polite.”

“I don’t care,” insists Tommy. “Why is he a pig?”

Techno laughs nervously, glancing at Phil, who is engrossed in chopping vegetables, and then back at the brothers. “I’m just a pig. Why are you a human?”

Tommy blinks at that, and scrunches up his face like he’s really thinking about it. Will starts laughing, and he claps Techno on the back as if they’re already friends. “I think I’m going to like you,” he says. “Here, let me show you your room.”

Will gestures towards a little hallway and starts to lead Techno out of the living room, Tommy scampering ahead of them. “Let me show him! Let me show him!”

The cottage isn’t big enough for Techno to have his own room. Instead, Will and Tommy show him a room with two twin beds and one old bedroll on the floor, layered with quilts for comfort. Techno sets down his knapsack next to the bedroll.

“Feel free to put your things in the wardrobe,” Will tells him. Techno nods but makes no move to do that. Tommy is still openly staring at him. Will hovers for a moment, as if he’s not sure if he should say anything else. “I, uh, better help Phil with dinner,” he says after a second, and leaves the room with a smile. Tommy runs after him.

Alone in the room, Techno takes a deep breath. He stands and makes his way to the window, pushing the curtain aside. His new bedroom faces away from the cliffside, so instead of a view down the mountain, he just sees trees and more of the mountainside going up. The cold rain has turned into small, new snowflakes.

Techno returns to the bedroll. He pulls his one change of clothes from the knapsack and changes quickly, glad to be dry after the long day of travel in the rain. He sits, pulling a quilt over his lap, and taps his fingers against his leg for a minute before getting a book out of the knapsack. A little light reading will calm his nerves.

Noises float in from the living room. Voices, laughter, the sounds of cooking. At some point, someone turns on a jukebox, and relaxed, smooth music drifts through the cottage. Techno hears Phil humming along while Will and Tommy bicker about something. He glances up from his book when he thinks he hears his name.

“--an orphan, Tom, so we need to be kind--”

“What’s an orphan?” Tommy demands.

“...no family… staying with us,” Will’s voice is quieter, harder to pick up.

“But why is he a pig,” Tommy asks again.

“People are what they are,” comes Phil’s voice, louder, as if he’s calling across the room to them.

Techno flops back on the bedroll, tuning the voices out and losing himself in his book. He doesn’t know how long he’ll be staying here. When he first got stranded in the overworld, sneaking through a portal to look for food and items to trade only to return to find the portal destroyed, his only goal had been to go home. To find an overdweller who could give him access to a portal, or teach him to build his own, so he could find his way back to his little red cave filled with shoddily-made weapons and stolen books in human languages. It was lonely, but it was all he had. After a month in the overworld, though, spent pickpocketing and sneaking around to keep himself fed, he started to think that a life as a penniless orphan in a beautiful, diverse world filled with new knowledge was at least slightly better than a life as a penniless orphan in literal hell.

Phil had found him sleeping on a roadside. They’d traveled together for a few weeks, Phil going about his business of gathering resources while teaching Techno the secrets of the overworld. How to find food, how to build a shelter and sleep through the night, how to whip up potions to keep up your strength during a long journey or a fight. When it was time for Phil to go home, Techno just kept following him.

Techno hears a knock on the door and looks up to see Will poking his head in. “Soup’s ready,” he grins, then blinks. “Are-- are you reading Kropotkin?”

Techno folds the corner of the page he’s on and sets down _Memoirs of a Revolutionist _. “Yeah, what about it?”__

Will shrugs. “Cool. You hungry?”

The soup is good.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Techno settles in. Phil leaves.

Techno learns the land around the cottage day by day. Behind the house, there’s raised wooden beds for a vegetable garden, empty and under a layer of frost for the time being. Deeper among the trees is a chicken coop that Tommy is in charge of managing, although he usually whines or bribes his way out of it. Out front, the rocky path dips down into a wide valley, and the closest village is just visible to the east. Wilbur shows him a shortcut to the village on their first errand run together, climbing over rocks and wading through a fast-moving stream.

He learns to can vegetables, and work a stove, and darn socks, and set traps to hunt instead of charging down his prey like a wild boar. In return, he lets Will borrow his books of theory and poetry, lets Tommy ride on his back when the little one gets tired of helping with chores. He teaches Phil how to make leather armor and crossbows the way piglins do, stronger and deadlier than their human-made equivalents. He plants potatoes. He bakes bread. This new home is cold, and sometimes Techno still dreams about the eternal warmth of his little red cave, but he’s never been anywhere this beautiful and peaceful in his life.

He’s been staying with them for almost a month when Phil leaves again.

“When will you be back?” Techno asks. All four of them are working in the living room, sorting clothes and weapons and food rations to go into Phil’s bag.

“A week, I reckon,” Phil says, and Techno sees Will’s eyes narrow. “Maybe a fortnight. No more than that.”

“Will you bring us presents?” demands Tommy.

“Of course,” Phil says, chuckling. He ruffles a hand through Tommy’s hair, and Tommy makes a face. “I’ll find something very special, just for you, kid.”

When he leaves, the boys watch from the front step as Phil spreads his big wings and pushes off the ground. Techno holds one of Tommy’s small hands and Will holds the other. Within minutes, Phil is just a speck in the distant sky, indistinguishable from the hawks that circle over the valley.

“When my wings grow in, I’ll get to go on trips with Phil,” Tommy says, squinting at the clouds on the horizon. “I’ll fly all the way around the world.”

Will looks sideways at Techno and raises his eyebrows. “That’ll be sick.”

That night, Tommy falls asleep on the rug while Will and Techno play chess at the dining table. The house is quiet except for the soft click of carved wooden pieces and the crackling of the fire.

“Check,” says Will, sliding a piece across the board.

Techno furrows his brow. He’s lost twice already, and he wouldn’t be surprised if Will beats him a third time. It’s frustrating, because Techno’s not stupid. The rules of the game make sense, and every time he makes a blunder he realizes his mistake the second he takes his hand off the piece. He knows he could be good at this game, really good, if he just had a couple weeks of research and practice, but it’s his first time playing and Will is some kind of prodigy at everything he does.

Techno puts up a good fight before Will checkmates him six moves later.

“You’re pretty good at this,” Will says, no sarcasm in his voice, leaning back in his chair and grinning.

“Don’t patronize me,” Techno says, but he smiles anyway.

“I mean it! You did really well for your first time. We should do this more.”

“Hmph,” Techno grunts. They sit in silence for a moment.

Outside, the sound of the wind picks up.

“Hey,” Techno says, tapping his hoof against the rug. “How long is Phil really going to be gone?”

Will snorts and starts fiddling his fingers. “Who knows. He said a week, maybe two, so it’ll be at least a month.”

Techno’s eyes widen. “Do we have enough food?”

Will shrugs. “We’ll be fine, man. We’ve got a shit ton of potatoes and enough money to go shopping if we need to. Honestly, the hardest part is keeping Tommy entertained so he doesn’t go crazy.”

Techno thinks about the weeks that he spent traveling at Phil’s side. It should’ve been obvious, but it suddenly occurs to him that for all that time, Will and Tommy had been alone up here. He frowns.

“Don’t look so sad,” Will laughs. “I’ve been taking care of myself since I was Tommy’s age. Besides, didn’t you live alone as a kid in the Nether?”

“That’s different,” Techno says. “Pigs never live with their parents. The kids just kinda run around, sure, but the adults still make sure they get fed and don’t get killed. It’s a collective effort.”

“And you lived in a cave, alone, away from everybody else.”

Techno rolls his eyes. “Okay, I was self sufficient.”

Wilbur spreads his hands. “So was I.”

Techno looks at Tommy, curled up on the rug and snoring, and tries to imagine Will at that age, all alone in the house. He tries to remember himself at that age, too. He felt so much bigger than Tommy looks now.

“What do we do until Phil comes back?” Techno asks.

“Same as usual,” Will says. “Mostly.”

“Mostly?”

Will starts to gather up the scattered pieces around the chess board and line them up back in starting position. “You know. We go hunting. We cook shit. We keep up the chores as best we can, although we’re shit at it. We especially keep up Tommy’s reading lessons, otherwise Phil will be cross when he gets back. Another game?”

“Sure.”

Will spins the chessboard around so that their colors are swapped from the last time they played. “I’ll go easy on you.”

“Please don’t.”

“Suit yourself.”

Techno gets his first win.

* * *

Techno wakes in the middle of the night with sharp pains in his mouth.

He groans, moves in a daze to sit up on the bedroll. The weather outside has gotten worse since they went to bed, and the windows rattle in their frames from the wind. His gums hurt like hell.

Head pounding, he pushes himself to his feet and stumbles into the dark hallway. In the tiny washroom, he bats his hand at the shelves in the dark until he hits matches and a candle. When he strikes a match, he can see himself in the mirror. The flickering light casts deep, shifting shadows over his face as he moves to light the candle. He looks half-dead.

It takes a minute for the sink to start sputtering out icy water. Techno dips his head to the faucet and rinses his mouth. When he moves the candle close, he can see his own blood in the water after he spits it out.

There’s a knock at the door, and Techno almost hits his head when he straightens up quickly. “Wh-what is it,” he sputters.

Will stands in the doorframe, dressed in sleep clothes, looking afraid. “Are you all right? Oh my god, are you coughing up blood?”

Techno takes a deep breath. “No, no, I’m fine. Sorry I scared you, I was just freaking out cause I was disoriented.” He opens his mouth and points to his bottom canines, where the area around the teeth is red and swollen. “It’s, uh. My tusks are growing. It’s normal for us.” He spits in the sink again. “It just hurts a lot.”

Will’s shoulders slump in relief. “Okay. I’m glad you’re good, then.” He reaches out a tentative hand and pats Techno on the shoulder awkwardly. It shouldn’t be comforting, but it is.

“I didn’t wake you up, did I?” Techno asks.

Will shakes his head. “I couldn’t sleep.”

Techno nods. “Been there.”

“As long as we’re both up, I could make you something?” Will gestures over his shoulder towards the main room. “We’ve got the stuff for painkillers.”

Techno rinses his mouth one final time. “That sounds great, actually.”

They sit at the dining table again while they wait for the potion to brew, in the same spots where they’d played chess a couple hours ago. Now, though, the fire is out and the house is dark except for the unnatural glow of a brewing stand. The wind howls outside.

“And I thought I had it bad when I started growing a shitty moustache,” Will jokes, and Techno smiles.

“Heh. There’s pros and cons to both, I guess.”

Will draws his knees up to his chest on the chair. “Stop me if it’s a weird question,” he says, “but are you going to get really big? Like, are you still growing? I’ve read that piglins can hit eight feet tall.”

Techno shrugs. “I am still growing. Eight feet is kind of a maximum, though, not an average. Like, sure, humans can hit six and a half feet, but how many actually do?” He narrows his eyes. “Okay, wipe that grin off your face, Wilbur, you’re a freak of nature.”

Will just smiles bigger and gets up to take the finished potion from the brewing stand. He hums to himself as he pulls a mug from the cupboard and pours the potion, steaming and thick like soup, from its glass container into the mug. He sets it in front of Techno. “There. Now pretend it’s hot chocolate.”

Techno grimaces as he downs the potion, but as soon as he’s finished the pain in his gums starts to dull. He clenches and unclenches his jaw and sighs. “I’m a new man.”

Will chuckles. “Good lad. Are you tired?”

Techno shakes his head.

“Me neither.” Will walks over to the sofa and sprawls down on it, kicking his legs over the armrests. “Hey, I’ve been reading some of your anarchist guys. Really interesting stuff.”

“Mhmm.”

“Do you fancy yourself a radical?”

“Eh,” Techno says, swiveling his chair to better face Will. “To me, honestly, none of it seems that crazy. Humans have this obsession with organization. Systems and patterns. It’s part of what makes me like you guys, honestly. But you also have this idea that the systems in place are, like, preordained by the universe. You think that a world without your systems is a radical, insane idea when there are people -- other humans, even -- who have never had them and still live perfectly happy and normal lives.”

Understanding dawns on Will’s face. “No government in the Nether.”

“Well, it’s a little more complicated than that. But kind of.”

Will cocks his head. “We have all night. Enlighten me.”

“What, do you want to be a radical?”

“Hmm. Maybe. I want to study politics.”

“Fascinatin’.”

“What about you?” Will looks up at him, curious.

“What do you mean, what about me.”

Will sits up. “I mean, what d’you want to do when you’re older? We’ve only got a few years till we’re legal adults. Me, personally, I want to go to university and move far away from here.”

Techno looks down. “Here is nice.”

Will grimaces. “Well, obviously it’s nice. But it’s so lonely. The nearest town is ages away, we walk everywhere by foot, and everything’s so old-fashioned.”

Techno supposes he hasn’t seen any cities, yet. Everywhere he travelled with Phil was wilderness, interspersed with small towns and farms. He’s read books about greater human civilization, lots of books, and it does sound fantastic to see.

“Besides,” Will continues, “Tommy should really be going to school. You and me, we read fuckin’ Aristotle for funsies, we were fine all alone with our books, but Tommy -- he deserves friends, he deserves a real education. You know the reason he’s off the walls half the time is that he’s just bored. Bored and so, so lonely.”

“Yeah,” Techno says, quietly. Will’s right.

“Honestly, one day when Phil’s gone we should just leave. We’re smart. We can hitch a ride south of here.”

Techno understands why Will is sick of it. He’s been cooped up his whole life, first a lonely kid, then a teenager put in charge of basically parenting his little brother. He figures he would want to escape, too, if their roles were reversed. It’s basically the same reason he hasn’t gone back to the Nether; no matter how much comfort his old home provided, in the end it felt like a cage, and he was thankful to be free.

Still, though, the idea that one day he might wake up and find Will and Tommy gone forever makes his chest feel tight and his stomach turn.

Will is still talking. “There’s history being made in the world, right now, and I’m just sitting here. We don’t even have internet! It’s like we’re cavemen!”

“If you do go,” Techno blurts out, “send me letters.”

Will stops. He blinks at Techno. “Dude. Obviously you would come with.”

“Oh.” Techno’s thoughts slow. “Oh. Cool.”

“If you would want to come with, that is,” Will adds. “I can’t really imagine you’d want to just stay here by yourself, though.”

Blood rushes in Techno’s ears. “Um. I guess it would depend.”

Will nods. “I get it,” he says.

For a minute, neither of them speak. Techno pulls at the sleeves of his shirt.

“If you’re feeling nervous that you’re not one of us,” Will starts, slowly, kindly, “Don’t worry about it. It doesn’t matter that you haven’t been here long. Do you know Tommy’s not my brother by blood?”

Techno shakes his head. He didn’t know.

“Yeah, Phil just found him, same as he found you. I was ten, and I lived all by myself up here most of the time, and then one day Phil came home and unleashed a toddler on me.” He laughs, then looks at Techno. “You can be our brother, too, if you want.”

Techno can feel his own heartbeat. “I’ll think about it,” he says.

Will laughs again. “You’ll think about it. You know what, I’ll take that.” He stands up. “I’m gonna try and go to bed for real. Wake me up if your teeth are bothering you, and I can always make you another potion.”

“Thanks,” Techno says.

He sits at the dining table in the dark after Will leaves. His emotions feel too big for his body.

It’s a simple thing, really. A symbolic thing. It wouldn’t mean anything by law or by blood, Techno tells himself. To be a brother. To be a part of a family. It’s a simple thing, and yet the idea of it overwhelms him. He doesn’t understand.

By the time Techno goes to bed, his gums have started to hurt again, but it’s not as bad as before, so he ignores it. In the morning he’ll make Wilbur teach him how to make the painkiller potion. Better to know the recipe himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! I have Twitter now if you want to say hi over there. It's @augustcomics, heh heh. Right now I don't have an exact update schedule planned but I'm hoping to get out about one chapter a week! See you guys soon.

**Author's Note:**

> hi! more chapters coming soon.
> 
> title is from Empire Ants by Gorillaz. i was inspired to use that song because of this really good animatic. check it out! https://youtu.be/LdGImEfG4Mk


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